


from the mouths of babes

by AgentStannerShipper



Series: tumblr ficlets [76]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Background Crowley/Aziraphale, Family Dynamics, Gen, rewritting the rules of ineffable games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 15:09:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: Adam has some wisdom for the Almighty.





	from the mouths of babes

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt about God wanting to visit her grandson.

She came at tea time, and Adam was waiting for her. He wouldn’t normally have opened the door to strangers when his parents weren’t home, but She wasn’t precisely a stranger, and anyway, She had called ahead. “Your tea is getting cold,” Adam told Her, and led Her into the parlour.

She sat opposite him and smiled. Or gave the impression of smiling. Her form wasn’t meant for human interpretation, but Adam could get a sense of what She might have looked like, had She been tangible. It reminded him of his mum, only much older, much wiser, and a little more prone to amusement. “How have you been, Adam?” She asked politely.

“I expect you know already,” said Adam. Neither of them touched their tea. Adam cocked his head. “So, you’re my grandmother, then?”

“I shouldn’t think so,” She replied. The aura of amusement grew stronger. “You did renounce my son as your father, after all.”

“Yeah,” Adam said. He picked at his knee. “But you’re the mother of everything, aren’t you?”

“In some senses of the word.” Not the human sense, perhaps, but then She had created everything. They might not have been brothers and sisters in the usual use of the term, but they were all Her children anyway.

“Why’d you want to see me?”

“I was curious.”

At that, Adam looked up and regarded Her, a newfound interest in his eyes. “Didn’t think you could get curious,” he said, “what with you being all-knowing and all.”

She gave the appearance of shrugging. “Some things even my eyes cannot detect. You are one of them.”

“Are you going to smite me? For stopping the apocalypse, I mean.”

“Oh, no.” She smiled. “I was impressed. I came up with free will for a reason, after all.”

“You ought to give it to those two,” Adam said. He pulled his legs up onto the sofa, crossing them and leaning forward. “I mean, you ought to give it to all the angels and demons, really, but especially them.” He didn’t feel the need to specify, and She understood.

Her sigh was fond. “I’m not supposed to have favourites, but I do enjoy those two,” she admitted. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “I’ll tell you a secret, Adam.”

“Oh?” Adam liked secrets. He grinned.

She grinned back. “I already gave it to them. They’ve had it since Eden.”

“Really?”

“Mmhm. It’s just a matter of working it out for themselves.”

Adam considered that. “Seems a little mean,” he said finally. “Not telling them and making them worry about it.” He eyed Her suspiciously. “You going to tell me it’s a grown-up thing I wouldn’t understand?”

“No.” She sat back, as if crossing one leg over the other. She picked up Her teacup but did not drink from it. “I love them all, you know. The angels and the demons and the humans. I was impatient with them in the beginning, and I suppose I was a bit harsher on them than I needed to be. Being a parent isn’t easy. But at a certain point, you must let your children find their own way.”

“That’s rubbish,” Adam said. “If you don’t mind me saying so,” he added, abruptly conscious of who he was speaking to. When nothing bad happened, he continued, “It’s all well and good to let them decide what to do with themselves, but if they don’t even know that they can…”

She nodded. “I see your point.”

Adam relaxed. He picked up his own teacup and drank, then made a face. He would have spat it out, but he didn’t think that would be polite to do in company. He set it down again, swallowing reluctantly. “Is that why you didn’t come see me then?” he asked. “When everything was ending? You didn’t want them turning to you to sort things out?”

“Precisely.” She set her own teacup down as well. It was still full. “I’m sure you can understand. They wanted the same from you.”

“Yeah.” Adam nodded. “You aren’t wrong about finding things out for ourselves. But you should still tell them, I think.”

“Maybe I will.” She stood up, or gave the impression of standing up. “This has been lovely, but I really ought to be going. It’s a busy universe, and I think your parents will be home soon.”

“Yeah, alright,” Adam said. He walked her to the door. “Are you going to come back?”

“Perhaps. We shall see. Take care, Adam Young.”

He waved. She crossed the threshold, strolled down the garden path, and melted with the sunlight.

Miles away, in a little bookshop in SoHo, an angel did a double take, staring at something that hadn’t been on his front desk a moment before. He picked up the apple with one hand and the note beside it with the other.

_You are a being of love, Aziraphale,_ it read, _and there’s nothing wrong with loving demons. Be not afraid any longer._

The phone beside him rang, and he picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hi,” said the voice on the line, “it’s me. Did you get a note?”

“I did. Did you?”

“Yeah. Listen…want to do dinner?”

The angel looked at the apple in his hand, and he smiled. “I believe the customary expression is, ‘you can pick me up at eight’?”

“Yeah, angel.” There was a sigh of warm relief on the other end of the line. “That’s the one.”


End file.
